Code Orange (24 page)

Joe's mind is always somewhere else. He doesn't fit in, and everybody laughs at him. And then a tattered circus comes to town, and a tiger comes for Joe. It leads him out into the night, and nothing in his world is ever the same again.

Erin Law and her friends in the orphanage are labeled Damaged Children. They run away one night, traveling downriver on a raft. What they find on their journey is stranger than you can imagine.

Under a dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1960, young Anita lives through a fight for freedom that changes her world forever.

Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices, until Jonas is given an opportunity that will change his world forever.

Lamed and suddenly orphaned, Kira is mysteriously taken to live in the palatial Council Edifice, where she is expected to use her gifts as a weaver to do the bidding of the all-powerful Guardians.

At age four, Colibrí was kidnapped from her parents in Guatemala City, and ever since then she's traveled with Uncle, who believes Colibrí will lead him to treasure. Danger mounts as Uncle grows desperate for his fortune—and as Colibrí grows daring in seeking her freedom.

Toby's small, sleepy Texas town is about to get a jolt with the arrival of Zachary Beaver, billed as the fattest boy in the world. Toby is in for a summer unlike any other—a summer sure to change his life.

Fourteen-year-old Harold Kline is an albino—an outcast. When the circus comes to town, Harold runs off to join it in hopes of discovering who he is and what he wants in life. Is he a circus freak or just a normal guy?

In a suspenseful novel of betrayal, forgiveness, and first love, fifteen-year-old Mick Nichols opens an e-mail he was never meant to see— and learns a terrible secret.

Violet Paz's upcoming quinceañero, a girl's traditional fifteenth-birthday coming-of-age ceremony, awakens her interest in her Cuban roots—and sparks a fire of conflicting feelings about Cuba within her family.

Lily never guessed that hate could be so fierce. She's always thought of
hate
as a verb for clothing (
I hate pink
) or weather (
I hate when it's hot
), but now she uses
hate
and feels hate in a new way Lily hates her father.

It isn't because of her parents' divorce. When her mother remarried and had a baby Lily could cope with it. But it hasn't been the same for her younger brother, Michael.

Michael decides he wants to live with their father, and as much as they want to stop him, they have to let him go. When Michael ends up suddenly coming home again, only Lily knows why. She doesn't tell anyone the true story.

Lily knows that one of the Ten Commandments says “Honor thy father”—but what if he doesn't deserve it? Her feelings are justified, but where can she turn to find a way to forgive?

Excerpt from
A Friend at Midnight
copyright © 2006
by Caroline B. Cooney. Published by Delacorte Press.

M
ichael. Age eight. Alone at Balti-more/Washington International Airport without a ticket?

“Do you have York?” she asked.

“I don't have anything. I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't pack.”

When Mom finds out, she'll bring in the FBI and ten lawyers, thought Lily.

Mom was a nice, good-humored person, but her post-divorce anger rose easily to the surface and she would take advantage of this. She'd bypass Michael for this huge and lovely chance to get even. She would get Dad jailed.

You would think there could be nothing worse than being abandoned by your father. But there was something worse. If bad things happened to his father, that eight-year-old would hold himself responsible. Michael would tumble and smash like the loser in some horrible Chutes and Ladders game.

But he could not stay alone in an airport. Anything could happen, something really hideously terrible. “Flag down a cop, Michael. There have to be dozens wandering around an airport.”

“No.”

“I'll talk to them. You don't have to.”

“No!”

What if the police kept Michael? Some judge in Maryland might put Michael in a foster home or some halfway house with real criminals. And how long would they keep him? Maybe not just overnight. Maybe weeks or months. And what if some sick and twisted judge—because according to the news, the world was full of them—decided Michael still belonged with Dad?

Because to the judge, Dad might claim it was just a misunderstanding.

And maybe it was.

Lily would keep Michael on this line and use her cell to call Dad. Dad would have an explanation.

“Are you still there?” Michael's voice was shaky.

Who cares about an explanation? Lily thought. What he'd better have is a plane ticket. “I'm here. I'm telephoning Dad. You stay on the line while I get my cell. You know what, Michael? Maybe on his way to the parking lot Dad had a fender bender. Because he didn't mean for you to be alone, Michael. It was careless of him to drop you off, but he thought he'd be back in a second.”

“He's not parking the car, Lily. He told me I'm not the son he had in mind. And then he drove away.”

A hand landed on Michael's shoulder. A voice said, “You okay?”

Michael had been wholly absorbed by his sister's voice and the background music of Nathaniel screaming his name. He'd pressed his face into the silvery chrome of the phone box, getting closer to Lily. So rarely had Michael cried in his life that for a moment he

couldn't figure out how his face had gotten all wet.

The man bending over him must be a pilot; blue uniform with several insignia including wings. Michael wiped away the tears with the back of his hand. “Sure, I'm okay,” he said. “Just saying good-bye to my sister.”

“Airports are all about saying good-bye,” agreed the pilot. “But who's with you, son? I don't see anybody in the whole room.”

He was right. There were no longer kids playing, or parents watching, or a couple kissing by the window. Michael was alone. Post-9/11, airports hated anything unusual. Michael couldn't stop being eight and he couldn't stop being alone, but he could stop crying and he could fake a family. He dragged out the grandmother excuse again.

“Tell you what,” said the pilot. “I'll just wait with you till she comes.”

“What's going on?” Lily demanded through the phone.

“A pilot wants to sit with me until Grandma gets back from the bathroom,” said Michael.

“Let me talk to him.”

“No.”

“Michael, you can't be alone in an airport.”

Published by Laurel-Leaf
an imprint of Random House Children's Books
a division of Random House, Inc. New York

Sale of this book without a front cover may be
unauthorized. If the book is coverless, it may have been
reported to the publisher as “unsold or destroyed” and
neither the author nor the publisher may have
received payment for it.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
incidents either are the product of the author's imagination
or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2005 by Caroline B. Cooney

All rights reserved.

Originally published in hardcover in the United States by
Delacorte Press, New York, in 2005.

Laurel-Leaf and colophon are registered trademarks of
Random House, Inc.

www.randomhouse.com/teens

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RL: 5.7

eISBN: 978-0-307-48305-8

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